Contents

Gameplay

In The Fire Rises, players take on the role of one of Bane's henchmen, tasked with looting and pillaging Gotham City on his behalf.

The game's objective is to loot as many valuables from several targets on the map while fending off waves of Gotham's security officers. As you steal more loot, new locations and crew members will become available. Each stage ends when the Gotham Police Department shows up in full force. Players lose loot for each crew member apprehended by the police. Bane gives players a countdown before the Gotham Police Department arrives, giving players the chance to make a last ditch effort to grab more goods or simply turn tail and run.

Players loot resources by first spawning crew members from sewer covers. Friendly sewer covers appear white while enemy controlled sewer covers appear red. Crew members can capture enemy sewer covers to create new spawn locations, increasing the speed by which players can call up reinforcements. These sewer covers also mark each stage's exit. Friendly units must return to one of these sewer covers to drop off loot and escape from the Gotham Police Department.

The game features eight crew members, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. These crew members eliminate enemy forces with a variety of melee, mid-range, and far-range attacks or support allies with healing capabilities, demolitions knowledge, or quick capture speeds.

Crew Members

Batman: The Fire Rises features eight crew members. Their descriptions and abilities are described below.

Thug

Thugs are fast and are best for breaking into buildings and transporting loot. They can only attack in melee range and are therefor vulnerable to enemy gunfire. Thugs are available at Rank 1.

Enforcer

Enforcers are close to mid-range combatants. They can engage enemies with gunfire or in melee combat. Enforcers are available at Rank 1.

Hitman

Hitmen are mid to far-range fighters. They exclusively attack with gunfire and are therefor vulnerable to melee attacks. Hitmen are available at Rank 1.

Saboteur

Saboteurs can throw Molotov cocktails to damage multiple enemies in one attack and set them on fire. They are also the only crew member able to rig cars to explode on command. The Saboteur is available at Rank 2.

Special Ability: Rig cars to explode
To rig cars to explode, players can click on the icon above any vehicle on the map. The Saboteur is unable to defend himself while rigging explosives, but can be called off the task to return fire. After a few seconds, the Detonate action becomes available, visible above the car. When detonated, the explosion will deal immense damage to all enemies, allies, and friendly turrets within its blast radius.

Mastermind

Masterminds are efficient mid-range fighters. They attack with a shotgun and, in addition to this, each Mastermind can place one turret on the battlefield.

Special Ability: Create Turret
To create a turret, players may click on the "Built Turret" icon when the Mastermind is not moving. The Mastermind is unable to defense himself while building a turret, but can be called off the task to return fire. The turret is erected after a few seconds, at which point the Mastermind is unable to build more turrets.

Turrets are stationary, but their direction of fire can be rotated at any point in the game by clicking the turret and rotating its angle. The turret can fire on hostile opponents while this happens, allowing players to move the angle where necessary as enemies move in and out of firing range.

Mercernary

Mercenaries are efficient at long-range combat. Mercenaries do more damage than enforcers at long range, however, it takes a moment for them to set up. Mercenaries are available at Rank 4.

Gunshot Doctor

The Gunshot Doctor heals nearby allied units for a small amount of health over time. The Doctor does this passively and no ability has to be activated for this to occur. The Gunshot Doctor is available at Rank 4.

Catwoman is a unique crew member. While she cannot capture sewer covers, she can easily and efficiently eliminate several enemies. She is also capable of looting more goods than other crew members. Catwoman is available at Rank 5.

Buildings and Loot

Only specially marked structures can be looted for goods. These structures are marked with an icon above them and glow red when the mouse hovers over them. The number of stars indicates the amount of loot the structure currently holds. This number will dwindle and turn grey as the loot is entirely removed.

Before looting, players must assign crew members to "Break In". This process takes a few seconds and crew members cannot defend themselves while breaking in. Similarly, units carrying boxes from a building to a sewer cover cannot defend themselves. However, if selected and ordered to attack, all crew members will drop held boxes or stop the break in to return fire. Each dropped box must be clicked on to send selected units to retrieve them.

Sewer Covers

Sewer covers represent spawn and escape points for friendly units. Each sewer cover represents one location your crew members can spawn. The more sewer covers players have, the more units they can create simultaneously.

Sewer covers also mark the location of exit points. Crew members busy looting will return their loot to the nearest sewer cover before going back and grabbing more loot. Also, when the Gotham Police Department shows up and players choose to retreat, all crew members will immediately flee to the nearest sewer cover whether or not police officers are near. Retreating crew members will drop all loot they are carrying.

Sewer covers can be controlled by players or enemies. Covers with white icons above them designate player controlled locations; covers with red icons above them designate enemy controlled locations. To capture a sewer cover location, players select one or more units and click on the cover. It will take a few moments for units to seize locations and they will not defend themselves during this process. These units can be called off to return enemy fire.

Enemies may also recapture undefended sewer covers. When a cover is under attack, Bane will warn players with a message in the top left corner of the screen. Crew members can spawn while a sewer cover is under attack. If enemies successfully capture a sewer cover, friendly unit production will immediately cease. The game ends if all sewer covers are captured by enemies.

Unit Creation

A large portion of The Fire Rises gameplay requires strategic unit creation. To create crew members, players click on sewer covers they control and select which crew members they wish to create from a menu. Players can queue up to four units at once at each sewer cover. Unit creation features a progress bar to inform players how long it will take to produce this new crew member. Some crew members, such as the Gunshot Doctor, takes longer to create.

Enemies

The Fire Rises features several unnamed enemy types. Basic security guards, like the Thugs, engage in melee combat while others fire guns from mid and far range. The deadlist enemy type is dressed in black, appearing similar to an officer in full SWAT gear. This enemy fires mid-range grenades at crew members dealing massive damage over an area. Lastly, police officers dressed in traditional blue garb appear when Bane's police timer runs out. These officers cannot be killed and will arrest all crew members they touch. Each arrest will subtract loot from the loot total.

Ranking System

Batman: The Fire Rises features a tiered ranking system. Ranks are determined by the amount of total loot players have captured in all scenarios. Additionally, player headquarters grow according to the amount of total loot collected. The map of Gotham is populated with players and Facebook friends who also have headquarters. Players can visit these headquarters as a way to measure the amount of loot collected visually.

Locations

Batman: The Fire Rises features four locations at launch, two of which are available now. The map of Gotham City covers three districts: Downtown, Midtown, and Uptown. The game currently features the Docks Uptown, the Construction Yard and Oil Refinery in Midtown and a Chemical Factory in Downtown.

Construction Yard

The Construction Yard features three loot points. These include a crane and two small buildings. These structures do not have individual boxes to be carried out. Rather, each structure must be destroyed to immediately claim the loot. Their destruction is triggered when one or more crew members attempt to break in. After a relatively long period of time, the structure is demolished. Players must still retreat when all structures have been destroyed. If apprehended by police, crew members will still subtract value from the total loot collected in that location.

Docks

The Docks features three loot points and three sewer covers. Enemies spawn from two locations, the space immediately to the right of the large red lootable building and between the red building and a smaller blue lootable building. These two warehouses take the longest to loot.

Oil Refinery

Chemical Factory

Screenshots

Strategy

Crew Members

When the game begins, create four Thugs or Enforcers first. They spawn faster and can therefore seize sewer covers quicker.

Thugs and Catwoman are the fastest crew members available. These two crew types make excellent looters. Spawn them as soon as its safe.

Spawn crew members at the sewer cover where they are needed most instead of having them walk.

An exception to the above, if players need multiple Masterminds to build a turret wall, spawn them at separate sewer covers and make sure they arrive and start building at the same time.

One Saboteur can rig all cars on the level. There is no need to rush this crew member unless players want more area damage.

Defenses

The Mastermind turret is incredibly powerful. Players should establish a safe border with three or more turrets as soon as possible. Always include more than one so they can defend each other.

When building turrets, send a protective force with the masterminds in case they are attacked, that way the building is not slowed or cancelled.

Build turrets close to the locations enemies enter the battlefield while still covering their movement path. Try to cut them off before they can engage the crew members.

Mercenaries move incredibly slow but have immense range. Plant one next to each turret to prevent long-range enemies from destroying turrets from a safe distance. Using this tactic, devote all other crew members to looting.

Strong group types are composed of a variety of different crew members that incorporate mid-range and long-range attacks. Try to include one Saboteur and one Gunshot Doctor in every group.

Gunshot Doctors heal all friendly units within a small range. To keep looters topped up, keep one or two doctors along their parth between buildings and sewer covers.

Catwoman is incredibly fast and deadly. Use her to clean up enemies when turret defenses have fallen, without moving other crew members from their looting duties.

Break up large groups of crew members if SWAT type enemies are inbound. Doing so will prevent area damage from taking out entire squads with one hit.

Target enemies that do area damage first and save the weaker enemies for last.

Have a Saboteur rig all the cars to explode once players have established a good defense.

Detonating cars should be an absolute last effort. Cars only explode once. Do not detonate unless it will definitely kill the intended targets and when being overrun is inevitable.

Detonating a car damages all friendly units. Give the car a wide berth before detonation.

Retreating

Keep on eye on the countdown timer on the top-left part of your screen, particularly as the total goods available in each location dwindles.

Ten seconds is usually enough time to get everyone out safely. Pressing retreat before hand is a waste of looting potential.

To maximize loot, consider staggering your retreat: As the counter clicks down to zero, stop the nearest crew members from going back for more loot, but let the ones already carrying loot or those near the target location to grab just a little bit more. Ideally, all crew members are standing near a sewer cover the moment GPD arrives.

Remember, some crew members move more slowly than others. Catwoman can loot closer to the moment GPD arrives than others. Similarly, Mercenaries are very slow and should be start returning to a sewer cover earlier.

Sometimes GPD will get in between your crew members and their nearest sewer cover. Consider re-routing them if this looks like a possibility.